What is the Coalition for Charitable Choice?
Established in 1987 to diversify employee options in workplace giving campaigns, the Coalition for Charitable Choice is an alliance of nine federations.  Each federation is a partnership of five or more non-profit organizations united for fundraising around a common area of need. These 350+ diverse and vital agencies are active in a variety of areas, including health and human services, medical research, the environment, education, international relief, gay and lesbian issues, and programs for women and girls.  They deliver services at the local, national, and international levels and are not eligible for funding by traditional workplace giving federations that only partner with local social service agencies.  The nine member federations are listed on our home page.

What is a federation?
A federation is a partnership of non-profit organizations united for fundraising and marketing around common areas of need and activity. Federations help make fundraising more cooperative and cost-efficient. By giving to a federation, donations can support every organization in its membership. Some Coalition federations have formed around specific issues such as hunger or the environment; others represent a broader range of charitable groups. Federations can be local, national, or even international in scope. 

How do charities and non-profit organizations benefit from membership in a federation?
Federations are used by non-profit agencies to perform marketing and fundraising functions that the organizations may be ill-equipped to perform on their own. Federations provide agencies with a common mission, collegial support and strength in numbers; in addition they can assist with non-profit registration, fulfillment of requirements, operational challenges, and advocacy. Federations often represent their agencies in fundraising campaigns, allowing them to reach wider audiences, and enabling them to focus on their core missions of providing services.

What is a fund or foundation?
A fund or foundation is an organization that gives monetary grants to non-profit groups. Most funds have specific criteria for what types of projects they support, such as issue area, activity, or geographic region. Decisions are generally made by a volunteer board of directors, and grants are awarded periodically, often on an annual or a semi-annual basis.

Why should I give through payroll deduction at my workplace?
Workplace giving campaigns offer a number of advantages for both you, as a donor, and for non-profit organizations. They are efficient: Raising money at a workplace is many times cheaper than direct mail. With lower fundraising costs, more money can go to programs and activities. They are convenient: Once a year, you decide which issues you want to support, and your donations come right out of your paychecks! Payroll deduction provides organizations with a consistent income which allows them to plan and operate more efficiently. They insure accountability: The member charities of the Coalition's federations have met strict accountability standards, including low administrative costs. And finally, they help to educate donors about unfamiliar issues or organizations.

Can employees donate to non-Coalition agencies through the Coalition?
No. At 1.5 FTE employees, the Coalition does not have the infrastructure to support collection and distribution for non-Coalition donees outside of its 350+ partner agencies.

What percentage of the donations does the Coalition retain?
None. The Coalition is supported through membership dues from its member federations and does not take a percentage from the donations it passes on.

What is the cost to the member federations for the services provided by Coalition for Charitable Choice?
The member federations pay dues to the Coalition for its services. Dues are generally composed of two parts, an equal part paid by all, and a proportional part paid only by the federations that make the most money through the Coalition’s workplace giving campaigns.

Nine federations and 350 agencies? It'll be too confusing for the employees, not to mention all the paper!
On the contrary, the federations are generally organized around issue areas that are already familiar to donors — issues involving women and girls, the environment, international relief, gay and lesbian issues, medical research — and are all listed in one easy-to-read brochure.

Won't it be too confusing with two separate pledge forms?
Campaigns with two pledge forms can be confusing, and a waste of paper too. That is why the Coalition recommends that you create your own corporate pledge form listing all federation participants in an equal manner. This has been done numerous times at workplaces where the Coalition's federations work alongside other causes/federations embraced by the particular workplace. Your individualized corporate pledge form makes the campaign your campaign, putting credit where it is due. The Coalition for Charitable Choice has a number of excellent samples that you can adapt, or we will design a form for you to use, based on your needs.

This change will really complicate things for Payroll. We don't want to send out ten checks —nine to your federations and one to the other federation that we’ve worked with for years. It's easier the way it is.

Actually, you would only be sending two checks — one to the Coalition for Charitable Choice and one to the other federation. As fiscal agent for its nine federations and their agencies, the Coalition will take care of distributing donor money to its member federations according to the donors’ wishes. CCC and other participating federations will each need copies of all the pledge forms at the end of the campaign.

So how will this work in Payroll?
If your payroll department is already set up to deduct taxes, payroll savings, retirement, or donations from employees’ paychecks, you already have mechanisms in place to add the Coalition for Charitable Choice.

In the case of a combined campaign that includes both the Coalition and one or more other federations, representatives of each organization can come in at the end of the solicitation period and sort through the pledge forms with your payroll department to help determine which donations should be processed through the Coalition for Charitable Choice and which through the other federations. Each pay period, Payroll will withdraw a sum from all paychecks for Coalition charities, and a sum for any other participating federation. Each pay period, each month or each quarter, whichever Payroll prefers. Payroll will send checks out, one to the Coalition and one to each of the other participating federations.

Why would I want to give to a federation, instead of designating directly to an organization?
A given donor may want to support a specific issue area such as international aid or the environment, but not be committed to one specific agency. In that case, if s/he gives a gift to a federation, the federation will divide that money among its members. Each federation has its own formula for how it divides undesignated gifts: some disburse equally, others on a proportional basis. For details, the donor should contact the federation.

What happens if donors designate specifically for the Coalition for Charitable Choice?
Money designated directly to the Coalition is applied to defer expenses of the Coalition during the year that it is collected, and, hence, reduces the amount of dues that each member must pay.

What services does the Coalition for Charitable Choice provide to make our campaign easy, efficient and successful?

Campaign materials: CCC can help you tailor a campaign that meets your workplace’s unique needs. Services may include assisting in the design of your pledge form, organizing or staffing your campaign events, and targeting speakers that will address the specific interests of your employees. CCC will also provide posters (as available), brochures and giveaways from our federations and their member charities. 

Fiscal Management: More charitable choices need not translate to more hassles for you or your payroll staff. When your active giving campaign is over, a representative of the Coalition, usually in partnership with a representative of each other participating federation, can help you sort through the pledge forms to determine which donations should be processed through the Coalition and which through the other participating federations. All routing of donations to the 350+ charities of the Coalition goes through one office and one bookkeeping system (a single point of contact).

How do I know that my money is getting to the organization that I donate to?
You will receive a thank-you/acknowledgement from the organization within about 60 days from the conclusion of the campaign, unless you specify that you don’t want your gift acknowledged.

What is the overhead of each of the Coalition’s federations? 
The federations’ administrative overhead costs vary somewhat from year to year.

In 2006, they were as follows:

If I want to donate to an agency without having a federation take a percentage, shouldn’t I just donate directly to that agency?
The Coalition and its federations would heartily encourage you to donate directly to any of their 350+ agencies, enabling those agencies to retain 100% of your donation. If, however, you want to take advantage of the convenience of workplace giving - automatic payments deducted each month, allowing the donor to give over time without writing a single check - overhead fees will apply. Agencies view overhead as a cost of doing business, a reimbursement to federations for the costs of staging workplace campaigns and providing other outreach services. Agencies are also aware that when people give over time through the workplace, their donations are likely to be more significant than if they were paid in lump sum. When a donor makes a contribution to an agency through a Coalition campaign, s/he writes the check to the agency (for example, the University District Food Bank), the Coalition gives it to the agency directly, and the agency later pays the federation (i.e., the Food Resource Network Federation) its fee (i.e., 7 cents of every dollar) as outlined on the above chart. (In the example, the University District Food Bank ends up with $93 of a $100 donation. The other $7 goes to the federation Food Resource Network Federation, a 501(c)(3), for the services it provides the agency). No money is taken out of the contribution for the Coalition: the Coalition is funded entirely by dues paid by the federations.  It is important to remember that the Coalition passes on 100% of all donations to its nine federations and 350+ agencies. The only amounts taken out of any donations pass from the agencies to their federations, also 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

By what process do you assess the federations to insure their legitimacy?
The Coalition assesses federations for membership based on their fiscal accountability, their anti-discrimination policies, their willingness to work in partnership with other federations, and the extent to which their missions broaden the appeal and potential effectiveness of the Coalition as a catalyst for workplace giving.

(revised October 2007)